Mexico Travel Journal Week 5: Puebla and the The Accidental Fiesta

When traveling, it is often the unexpected and serendipitous events that really make a trip. Before leaving home, most travelers have a pretty good idea what sites they will see, what monuments they will photograph, what beaches they will lounge on. We have no idea, for better or worse, the people we will meet or the strange food we will fall in love with. And we have no way to predict when we will end up in a van with a Mexican family on the way to Veracruz for an unexpected fiesta. More on that later, but first let’s take a look at our 5th week in Mexico.

Mexico Photo a Day – Week 5 (click any photo to enlarge)

Day 29, Puebla – family on one of the pedestrian streets

Day 31, Puebla – the tallest church in Mexico

Day 32, Cuetzalan – 4 men at a time jump off and fly from the pole during festivals and weekends, unless it is pouring rain!

Mexico

Day 34, Cuetzalan – locals braving the rain at the market

Days 29-31 – Puebla, the City Everyone Loves

The lively zocalo of Puebla at night

Puebla, the 4th largest city in Mexico, is a place I’ve been interested in visiting for quite some time. Although there are no marquee attractions in the city, I have met dozens of people who have lived or worked there and they all love it. After visiting, I can see why – Puebla is a great city.

Puebla’s major claim to fame is that it boasts more colonial buildings than anywhere else in Mexico, with over 1000 standing. Just walking around the relaxed city looking at buildings and people is a great activity. The city center is clean and safe with multiple pedestrian streets and a lively zocalo that was bustling with activity all through the day. Northwest of the Zocalo there were tons of lively cafes, bars, art galleries and restaurants near the university. Moreover, no one tries to sell you anything there! We could walk around the city and enjoy the public spaces without being asked to buy anything, which was a nice change after Oaxaca.

If you ever visit central Mexico, visit Puebla!

Day 32 – Cuetzalan: the most beautiful town in Mexico that you’ve never heard of

The main square of Cuetzalan

Pro tip: don’t sit in the front row on the bus ride to Cuetzalan unless you really enjoy watching your life pass before you and like to see near accidents every 30 seconds. The winding road up the verdant mountains was absolutely stunning, and absolutey terrifying. Our driver, which was about the happiest man in the world, by the way, sped around blind curves, passed cars on narrow bridges and often took wide turns so he could set himself up to speed on the few straightaways. He did this while waiving enthusiastically at every passing bus driver and bopping to 80’s pop hits.

The city founders of Cuetzalan must have been sado-masochists, because the city his perched on the steepest hill in Mexico. Walking anywhere was akin to hiking and it was a trek just to go one block to the tienda. Few cities in Mexico sit on such a dramatic location, and few are as beautiful. The main plaza features a gorgeous cathedral, a clock tower and a 100 ft tall pole in which men, known as voledores or flyers, jump off and fly around in rituals. We timed our tip to be there on the weekend in order to see the performances.

We got in a van with the owners, David and Rocio, their 10 year old son Marco, and picked up David’s mama on the the way. We cruised through verdant tropical mountains to the state of Veracruz near the gulf coast and ended up at one of the most colorful events I’ve seen.

In the plaza in front of the church, giant balloons made of thousands of sheets of thin tissue and containing a heating element, expanded and grew to massive sizes when ignited. Once filled with enough hot air, the balloons, which were often as tall as the church, would take off and float away to the amazement of everyone in attendance. There were thousands of people attending the event, which had a band, dancing, games, food and cervesa, and I am pretty sure we were the only gringoes there.

Day 34 – The Rainstorm from Hell

On Sunday, it poured rain unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The steep streets turned into cascades, the voledores couldn’t perform and we spend most of the day trying to stay dry. I bet it rained 10 inches that day. It was a deluge.

Sunday is also the day of the big market, and I expected it might be canceled but the locals were prepared. Vendors strung up tarps, planted umbrellas and wrapped themselves in plastic to brave the rain. Upland markets are usually chaotic in normal conditions, add in a rain of Biblical proportions and it was even more interesting.

So in the end, we didn’t get to see the voledores, but we got to visit a fiesta with a local family and that was better. It was something we could have never predicted, but will no doubt be one of the highlights of the trip.

I’m just enjoying your posts on Mexico. I love the ones which feature heritage, culture and people, Mexico seems so colourful! A former colleague recently moved to Mexico City and he tells me to visit him soon – I gotta make sure that plan works out! 🙂

You gotta visit. There is a lot of culture and color here, for sure. There are still many indigenous people who wear traditional clothes and this country easily has the best collection of cities in the Americas. Make sure and come!

Jeff what a jam packed time. I love the surprises that appear while traveling. At this time because our trips are relatively short due to work commitments it doesn’t allow for tons of changes to an itinerary. However I will say that paragliding off a cliff in Turkey was a relatively spontaneous de soon on a rest day from cycling. Yes you would have hated it. 🙂

Although getting there sounds a wee bit precarious, Cuetzalan looks like an incredible place to visit! I so agree that sometimes that most magical happenings on a trip are the unplanned activities such as the festival you attended. When we were in Italy a number of years ago, we ended up in the midst of a festival in Gubbio called the Corsa dei Ceri.

Wow! That festival looks intense. That is certainly one of those unexpected things to see. Festivals are a double edges sword – they are often the highlights of the trip, but finding a hotel room and space on buses can be hard!

Wow, what a great journey you’re having. I look forward to more posts on these places, especially the festival in Zozocolco. It sounds fabulous! I think I’ll put Cuetzalan and the volodores on the list. Plus it’s reminded me to check out what festivals are happening during the 5 months we’ll be there next year.
Alison

You should absolutely go to Cuetzalan during your stay. It is about 5 hours from Mexico City by bus, but if you have a car, you can drive from San Miguel on a shorter route. The whole area around Cuetzalan has waterfalls and ancient ruins. We’d have stayed longer but there was rain in the forecast the next two days, and when I say rain, it was a deluge!

Hey Jeff – just catching the end of your meh-hee-Co posts and hope to read the others – but how fun this part of the trip was – I can picture those vendors in the rain and the unplanned party sounds great. Laughing at the way u described the bus driver and so fun when workers are in their element like that – and whew – must have used up all your b-vitamins sitting there in front like that –

I like the day to day event calendar!! But the question at the end of this post: “Have you ever had a spontaneous change of plans while traveling?” I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer! Eat a torta for me!

Jeff, you two are definitely doing Mexico right! Puebla has been on our list for a long time, and now we get to add Cuetzalan and Zozocolco. We spontaneously change our plans pretty often because when we left corporate life we committed to “living in the moment.” So far we’ve never regretted it. 🙂 ~Terri

That is a great way to do it. You also travel for extended periods so you have the luxury to do that. Yes, Cuetzalan needs to be high on the list. Only 2 hours from Puebla and tons of stuff to do in the area. It is probably the prettiest village in Mexico.

What a trip you had over Mexico, I lived 2 years and didn’t manage to see as much as you did. I just moved to Bucharest, and its been a bit over a month and I have already started to miss Mexico City. I loved that place, even with all the bad things, yes its safe, but you have to be careful. For a tourist that stay within the touristic places its highly unprovable for something bad to happen, but remember to stay in the safe areas…

I am glad you enjoyed. Mexico City is a place we’d like to live someday too. We got lucky to be there on some rainy days to it was cool and the air was clean. Bucharest is a place I want to visit someday too. There are too many places to see!

I would love to go and see Mexico in my golden years and visit it’s beautiful cities especially these dinner influence by the French I know now I don’t have to go across the world to visit other countries when we have it all just a couple of steps away of America

About Me

Hi, my name is Jeff Bell. I went to Europe on a two-month trip in 2001 and never stopped traveling. I am currently living in Bangkok, Thailand. Follow along for photo essays, travel stories and the occasional cartoon.